ReMix:Donkey Kong Land "Banananaz" 3:49

NANNERZ!! Newcomer Chiwalker, aka Luke Barden, debuts with this playful glitch-hop take on Donkey Kong Land:

"My stab at a 100bpm glitch-hop-ish track that I like to refer to as 'walking music.' I call it that because when listening to this tempo whilst walking, it is easy to fit with your stride and makes you feel like a badass. I wish I was skilled enough at making animation to create a video to go along with this remix: Imagine the Donkey Kong walking down a path (0:00), and Diddy Kong's sneaky self throws a banana peel (0:4 that DK slips on (0:57) and starts to fall and hit his head. He hits his head and opens his eyes and stars are circling over his head (like in Looney Toons) and he gets up and the setting has changed to a trippy jungle and DK resumes walking with o-so-much more badassness (1:07). He continues walking and similar events happen to him a second time - diddy throws a new banana in this already trippy world and sends DK's mind into a much more distorted perspective of the jungle (2:43). Eventually, his mind clears and he comes back to reality. ***0 illegal drugs were used for the inspiration and creation of this remix***"

Good to know ;) We don't get many submissions in this style, and I personally love the laid-back groove combined with glitching & bass manipulation (okay, okay... I guess it's "dubstep"-ish!) usually employed in more aggressive contexts. Vinnie writes:

"Cute arrangement. Though the snare is one of those classic drum machine sounds, it did have some body to it, and in general, the song balance was good. Maybe a little unusual hearing dubstep elements with such dinky percussion, but this wasn't trying to be a club banger and I thought the percussion worked fine."

I like that the bass doesn't have ALL the fun - there's some really nice tweaked FM-ish modulation on the high-end, plucked melody. The harmonization between that and the lower lead saw synth is super-catchy, and overall I think the upbeat & positive persuasion is the arrangement's greatest strength. Deia sums it up nicely:

"This is a completely fun arrangement, and I really enjoyed how you worked with things here. All the glitching is used very well, and nothing feels like it's being used as a gimmick, but as an integral part of the piece."

Always great to see more Game Boy mixes, DKL in particular, plus I think Luke did a good job transforming the faster, gleeful source into something slower & more modern, without losing the original appeal of those sugar-sweet melodies & harmonies. Great debut from Chiwalker!